Tour of England 1975     Tour Cancelled

Proposed as:

15th official Test tour

(1975)

Would have been eleventh Test-playing tour of England by South Africa

   (previous tour 1965)

Having cancelled the South African tour of England in May 1970, the Cricket Council said that England would no longer play Test matches against South Africa until multi-racial cricket was introduced.

The South African were disappointed that what they regarded as progress in making cricket multi-racial was insufficient.  The next scheduled tour of England by the South African was in 1980, shortly after which the South Africans started to bring over teams of Englishmen, Sri Lankans, West Indians and Australians on ‘rebel’ tours. There were also multi-racial double-wicket tournaments and overseas players of all races appeared for Currie Cup sides.

But by then opposition was hardening. Countries like Jamaica and Guyana were the first to ban sportsmen who had competed in South Africa. Commonwealth members had agreed at Gleneagles in 1977 to discourage any sporting contact with South Africa.

The introduction of multi-racial sport was seen as artifical while the society remained legally organised on racial grounds, and all sporting contacts soon became unacceptable. Any official tours became impossible until apartheid had been completely removed (in 1991).

Other South African tours

Previous Tour

England 1965

Recently cancelled tours

England 1970

Australia 1971-72

Next scheduled tour of England   1980

Next actual tour of England

1994